Bat Speed -- Baseball Hitting Forum

Posted by: PAtrick (pde@zoomtown.com) on Sat Jan 17 07:10:37 2009

Shawn,
A good baseball stance is very easy to develop with daily practice. The biomechanics of the stance are very simple. First, stand in an athletic stance, meaning feet about shoulder width apart. That's it. Sound too easy? Well, that's because the stance is secondary to the primary aspect of hitting. That is the stride. Hitters are unsuccessful most of the time not because they have their hands in the wrong place or they have a bad stance. They generally hit poorly because it is very difficult to stop a very subconscious activity and that is overstriding. I have been studying hitting intensely for the last five years. I find 85% of hitters hit well below their potential and 90% of hitters overstride. I recommend you stop worrying about hand placement and worry about length of stride. Videotape your natural swing. A proper stride should be about 4 inches. If yours is longer, your eyes will drop as you swing the bat and the bat head will immediately drop as well making you come off the ball. Also, overstriders give up their power becasue their weight is over their frond foot on contact. Also, overstriding does not allow you to keep your weight back and you will get fooled by breaking balls and change ups. Few coaches ever mention overstring as a problem and focus on less important aspects such as hand placement. That is why there are so many frustrated hitters. Practice your short stride in front of a mirror daily. Your hitting will improve 100 points in two months. Your teammates will start wanting to use your bat because they think it is magic. There are many other aspects to the biomechanics of hitting, but this aspect is most important. Read the book Coaching the Little League Hitter. It outlines in detail how to be an incredible hitter. My son is living proof. His average increased .250 to almost .700 and his slugging went up .4 to over 1.

Good luck.

> I always question myself that my stance is not good enough or my hands arent in the right position. How can i find my natural stance?

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> Shawn,
> A good baseball stance is very easy to develop with daily practice.  The biomechanics of the stance are very simple.  First, stand in an athletic stance, meaning feet about shoulder width apart.  That's it.  Sound too easy?  Well, that's because the stance is secondary to the primary aspect of hitting.  That is the stride.  Hitters are unsuccessful most of the time not because they have their hands in the wrong place or they have a bad stance.  They generally hit poorly because it is very difficult to stop a very subconscious activity and that is overstriding.  I have been studying hitting intensely for the last five years. I find 85% of hitters hit well below their potential and 90% of hitters overstride.  I recommend you stop worrying about hand placement and worry about length of stride.  Videotape your natural swing.  A proper stride should be about 4 inches.  If yours is longer, your eyes will drop as you swing the bat and the bat head will immediately drop as well making you come off the ball.  Also, overstriders give up their power becasue their weight is over their frond foot on contact.  Also, overstriding does not allow you to keep your weight back and you will get fooled by breaking balls and change ups. Few coaches ever mention overstring as a problem and focus on less important aspects such as hand placement.  That is why there are so many frustrated hitters. Practice your short stride in front of a mirror daily.  Your hitting will improve 100 points in two months.  Your teammates will start wanting to use your bat because they think it is magic.  There are many other aspects to the biomechanics of hitting, but this aspect is most important.  Read the book Coaching the Little League Hitter.  It outlines in detail how to be an incredible hitter.  My son is living proof.  His average increased .250 to almost .700 and his slugging went up .4 to over 1.
> 
> Good luck.
> 
>   > I always question myself that my stance is not good enough or my hands arent in the right position. How can i find my natural stance?

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